General election 2024: Wes Streeting fails to rule out council tax (2024)

Thank you for joining The Telegraph’s live coverage of day 22 of the general election campaign.

Our colleague Jack Maidment will be back on Monday to guide you through the day’s developments.

Douglas Ross’s decision to stand to be an MP has left a “bad taste” in the north-east Scotland constituency where he is running, First Minister John Swinney has said.

The Scottish Conservative leader put himself forward as candidate for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East after David Duguid was told by the party’s management board that he could not stand due to his ill-health.

Mr Ross said he would step down as leader shortly afterwards, when his colleagues expressed unhappiness at the move.

Boundary changes mean that Aberdeenshire North and Moray East is being contested for the first time, but the majority of the constituency was in Banff and Buchan, previously represented by Mr Duguid.

On Sunday, Mr Swinney was campaigning in Keith, Moray, alongside SNP candidate Seamus Logan.

He told PA: “Aberdeenshire North and Moray East is a key seat for the Scottish National Party.

“It’s obviously the seat where the sitting Conservative MP has been ousted by Douglas Ross and I think that leaves a really bad taste in the mouths of people in this constituency.

“I’m keen to make sure that people elect Seamus Logan as a strong advocate of this community for the SNP- who will go to the House of Commons and put the interests of Scotland first.”

Kemi Badenoch has waded into the row about Labour candidate Rosie Duffield, accusing Labour of “intimidation and abuse” towards its own.

It comes after Labour peer Lord Cashman called Ms Duffield, who has been a defender of women’s rights, “frit or lazy” for cancelling local hustings over safety concerns.

Women and equalities minister Ms Badenoch tweeted: “I can’t imagine what it’s like being Rosie in a party where her own colleagues continually attack her, just for standing up for women.

“This is now about more than women’s rights, but how a party manages internal disagreement. Instead of healthy debate it’s intimidation and abuse.

“If this is what they do to their own, imagine what they will do to our country.”

Wes Streeting has hit out at a Labour peer for calling Rosie Duffield “frit or lazy” after she called off local hustings over safety concerns.

Lord Cashman, a former EastEnders actor and Labour MEP, has apologised after he commented on a social media post about Ms Duffield’s move: “Frit. Or lazy”.

It came after Ms Duffield, a Labour General Election candidate who has been a defender of women’s rights and female-only spaces, said her attendance at local hustings was “impossible” because of “constant trolling”.

Shadow health secretary Mr Streeting told Times Radio on Sunday: “I strongly disagree with Michael (Cashman).

“That is extremely unfair and I was very concerned Rosie’s not able to participate in hustings and is having to change the way she behaves because of abuse.

“That is wholly intolerable and unacceptable, as is the abuse Nigel Farage has had.

“I count Michael and Rosie as friends and this is exactly the kind of division I’ve been working really hard to try and work through and heal.”

A former subpostmaster who lost his livelihood in the Horizon scandal has accused Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey of “buffoonery” for his stunt-laden election campaign.

Lee Castleton compared Sir Ed’s actions to those of former Tory prime minister Boris Johnson, adding trust is “never going to be built” by “paddleboarding in Cumbria”.

Sir Ed has come under fire for not doing more to help wrongly-convicted subpostmasters between 2010 and 2012 when he served as postal affairs minister in the coalition government.

He has previously apologised for failing to see through the Post Office’s “lies” and insisted he is taking voters’ concerns seriously during a campaign in which he has visited a theme park and also sped down the Ultimate Slip n Slide near Frome, Somerset.

Mr Castleton told the BBC’s Sunday Morning With Laura Kuenssberg: “I don’t particularly like the buffoonery, I find it very Boris-esque and I don’t think there’s any need for it.

“It’s really, really, really important that we trust him and trust is never going to be built by swinging around on ropes or paddleboarding in Cumbria.

“Trust is about engaging with the people that need that engagement.”

Suella Braverman has launched a TikTok campaign to encourage people to give her their votes in the upcoming election.

The Conservative candidate for Fareham and Waterlooville and former Home Secretary posted a video to the social media platform asking “who is going to vote for Suella on the 4th July?”

You can watch it here:

Ed Davey defended his stunts on the Liberal Democrat’s campaign trail, saying he uses them to show he’s “not taking myself too seriously”.

Asked on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg if voters think he is not taking the election seriously enough, he said: “We’re taking the voters’ concerns really seriously, that’s why we’ve been putting forward all these policy proposals.

“And whenever we do one of those stunts it’s to engage people, so I show that I’m not taking myself too seriously, I’m taking the voters seriously.

“We’ve had lots of policy ideas, so when I was coming down that slide we were talking about mental health - actually the BBC were covering our policy as they came down, and I’m pleased that they did because it’s really important.”

He added: “When I had the baker’s hat on I was baking biscuits with schoolchildren, but we were talking about free school meals.”

Actor Brian Cox has said he is “worried” that the Scottish National Party (SNP) will not make securing an independence referendum a clear goal of the General Election.

The 78-year-old Succession star has been very vocal about his support for Scotland breaking off from the UK and in his criticism of Brexit.

Asked on BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg about the political parties’ manifestos, the Dundee-born actor said the SNP “could be backing away from the notion of independence” ahead of it announcing its election pledges.

He added: “I don’t know if Scotland (has) backed off, but I think that it’s something that worries me, because I still... believe in independence.”

Cox said he believes that if Scotland was independent it should be “part of these islands” and co-operative with the rest of the UK.

He added: “I do believe we need a new kind of system.

“I don’t believe in the United Kingdom - I believe that we should have a sort of united federation with these islands, that each... country should be independent, but come together to support the whole, instead of things being dictated, as we find in Scotland (things are done) on our behalf, that we have very little say.”

This weekend marks the eighth anniversary of the murder of MP Jo Cox.

Her family said they would be putting on a “mini concert” of her favourite songs and “remembering all she meant to us”.

Her husband Brendan Cox wrote on X on Saturday: “This weekend will be the eighth anniversary of Jo’s murder. We’ll be marking it by celebrating her life & what would have been her coming 50th birthday!

“Our kids are putting on a mini concert of her favourite songs & we’ll be remembering all she meant to us and to so many others.”

The Batley and Spen Labour MP was stabbed and shot by a far-Right extremist in Birstall, West Yorkshire, on June 16 2016.

“It is not surprising that lifelong Conservatives are moving to Reform en masse. After decades of party membership, I resigned four years ago. By then the One Nation clique had already subverted the entire party.

“Now there is nothing left to save,” writes Telegraph reader Dr Tony Parker.

Read more from today’s Letters to the Editor here.

Pressed on Tory warnings over the opinion polls, the Transport Secretary told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “I’d say very simply to those voters who are thinking about voting Reform who have voted Conservative - they want to see lower taxes, they want to see migration under control, if they vote Reform they’re going to get a Labour government with a large majority and it’s going to deliver the opposite of what they want.”

Asked whether he would object to Nigel Farage joining the Conservatives if he won a seat in Clacton, Mr Harper said: “At the moment I think every Conservative should focus on winning this election. He’s leading a political party that is campaigning against us and trying to stop people voting Conservative.”

Wes Streeting admitted that he would have liked Labour’s manifesto to be “more ambitious” on social care.

The shadow health secretary told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “But to get policies in the manifesto, you had to run the gauntlet of answering two fundamental questions. Can we keep this promise? Can the country afford this promise? And if the answer to either of those questions was no, it’s not in the manifesto.”

He added: “Once we get the economy growing, which is the central starting point of a Labour government if we win the next general election, we will have more available to either invest in our public services or put back into people’s pockets.”

Mr Streeting also argued that Labour’s fair pay agreement for social care workers would be “transformational”, adding: “What I’m absolutely committed to is building a national care service over the course of a decade.”

Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “I am still very much up for this fight and we’re fighting, the Conservative Party, across the country led by the Prime Minister, is fighting for every vote.

“The polls do tell us one thing, they do show people that if people don’t vote Conservative and some of the people vote for the smaller parties and Labour does end up with a very large majority, they’re going to have a blank cheque, they’re trying very hard in this campaign not to spell out how they’re going to pay for any of their promises.

“We know there is a black hole - we can have a debate about how big it is, we’ve said it’s going to be £2,000 for every family over the Parliament - but there’s definitely a black hole. We’ve set out the taxes that they might have to raise and they haven’t ruled them out.”

Nigel Farage could not be in better spirits after the moment he had been waiting for finally arrived: Reform UK overtook the Tories in an opinion poll for the first time.

The Reform party leader, who confounded expectations by making a return to frontline politics two weeks ago, claimed that his party overtaking the Tories in a YouGov poll was not only a pivotal moment in the election campaign, but in the battle for the future of the Right.

Reform leader says splits in the Conservative party “will get worse” as some members become “more vociferous” about their opposing views, writes Camilla Turner, Sunday Political Editor.

Read the full story here.

Wes Streeting urged voters against giving the “matches back to the arsonist to finish the job”, as he suggested a Tory election victory would be a “nightmare on Downing Street”.

Speaking on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News, the shadow health secretary said Labour “would like to go further on so many fronts”, adding: “But we are dealing with a fundamentally weak economy and public finances that are an absolute state.

“I just warn people, against this backdrop of breathtaking complacency in the media about the opinion polls, do not give the matches back to the arsonist to finish the job.”

He added: “Do people want to see Liz Truss’s mini budget on steroids, which is the Conservative manifesto, being delivered if there’s a nightmare on Downing Street on July 5 or do they want to see a stable economy with economic growth, shared prosperity, enable us to invest in our public services without clobbering working people with taxes, that’s the choice at this election.”

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, defended Sir Keir Starmer against accusations of having become a “political robot”.

The Labour leader was criticised for appearing robotic by an audience member during a Sky News election broadcast debate this week.

Mr Streeting told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “I thought his most powerful moments were firstly when he was talking about his family, both in terms of his worries as a parent about his kids, about the way in which his parents and their lives have shaped who he is and what he’s about.

“And secondly, the connection that allows him to build with the struggles and the worries and anxieties that millions of people across the country have at the moment.

“I think compared to Rishi Sunak when it comes to who is more in touch and who has the answers for the country’s future, Keir Starmer wins by a country mile.”

Richard Tice, the Reform party chairman, told The Sun on Sunday that his party is the “real party of the workers”, who he says have been abandoned by “cafe latte” Labour.

Mr Tice said the party would announce a slew of tax cuts for working people at their manifesto launch on Monday.

He said: “Reform is the real party of the workers, who have been abandoned by ‘cafe latte’ Labour.”

The party, who passed the Tories in opinion polling for the first time this week, said they will promise to abolish IR35, a highly disputed area of the tax system that both Labour and the Conservatives have had a hand in creating.

Introduced by then-chancellor Gordon Brown, the Conservatives went on to reform these rules in 2017 and 2021 – much to the detriment of limited company freelancers and their clients.

Wes Streeting, the Labour shadow health secretary has urged junior doctors to call off their strike and said he is “beyond furious” the dispute is not yet resolved.

Rishi Sunak, in an interview withThe Sunday Times, revealed he relies on his Hindu faith to help guide him through the election campaign.

The Prime Minister said he followed the concept of duty - dharma - which helps to give him strength.

Dharma is the religious and moral law governing individual conduct and prioritises effort over outcome.

Mr Sunak talked about the concept as he denied being left frustrated by not being rewarded by the public after taking on the role after Liz Truss’s chaotic 49 days in Downing Street, writes Liz Perkins.

Read the full story here.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey will join Mark Harper, the Transport secretary and Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary and leader of Plaid Cymru Rhun ap Iorwerth on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Mr Harper and Mr Streeting, along with Adrian Ramsay, co-leader of the Green Party will then move on to Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, before appearing on Times Radio and LBC.

Later in the day the Shadow Scotland Secretary and co-Chair for Scottish Labour’s General Election campaign Ian Murray will give a campaign update at midday in Edinburgh.

We’re bringing you the latest updates today from the general election campaign trail.